Industry Updates

How to Protect Your Brand on WeChat

Published: September 22, 2020

Note: This is part of our ongoing series to update brand owners on online service providers’ efforts to curb counterfeiting and represents our collaborative initiatives to fight the proliferation of counterfeit goods online and elsewhere.

The Weixin Brand Protection Platform (BPP) from social media platform Weixin (WeChat) is designed to facilitate anticounterfeiting efforts by relaying user-reported counterfeit product information to brand owners.

Through the BPP, brand owners registered with the system can:

  • Receive leads about suspected counterfeit products that are submitted by Weixin users;
  • Assess whether the reported activity constitutes counterfeiting;
  • Analyze and follow up on reports and complaints in a convenient manner; and
  • File a complaint, in combination with other online and offline evidence, directly against any Weixin personal account owner suspected of having engaged in the publication of counterfeit product information or sale of counterfeit products on the platform.

Based on a brand owner’s assessment, Weixin will address the suspected account in accordance with the verification result and other feedback from brand owners.

In 2019, Weixin reported that it sent 300,000 user-reported instances of infringement to brand owners through the BPP and processed more than 60,000 accounts reported to engage in the sale of counterfeit goods. View an infographic on Weixin’s 2019 IP Protection Statistics here.

Before granting a brand owner access to the BPP, Weixin reviews each brand owner’s qualifications. The guidelines currently are available only in Chinese; Weixin is preparing an English-language version.

As a follow up to an information session that Weixin held for INTA’s Corporate Members in May 2020, Weixin has compiled detailed information on the BPP to further explain the process to members. Available as a members-only benefit, the document includes an explanation of how brand owners can submit a complaint through the BPP and additional strategies that Weixin has implemented to combat counterfeit products on its platform.


Members must be logged in to access the document.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest. 

© 2020 International Trademark Association